yeah, i was told the same thing, so i put the baby bob on my H18. It works fine. I knocked down my 18 twice now with it on and have had no flotation issues with it so far. It is VERY functional.
Only thing is: is you'll have to slightly modify the cast aluminum piece on the tip of your comp tip. I just drilled one hole and had to buy a little bit of hard ware and it went right on.
Lucky for us, our masts rotate. so that means that the bob is always pointing in to the relative apparent wind to minimize drag.

I have a new, unused Hobie Bob that I never installed when my kids where younger. Parts pack includes everything (instructions, rivetsw, bears, etc.) but I am missing the stainless steel rod (have no idea what box the movers put that in and haven't gotten around to getting a rod and drilling the holes. Best offer. Randy-Neubauer@charter.netSOLD

Last edited by NeubaurRL on Tue Mar 10, 2009 4:29 am, edited 1 time in total.

I have a previously used on H16 baby bob thinking of installing on my H18SX comptip. Any previous experience with this? I saw somewhere a black mast mounted flotation sleeve of some sort... any ideas on that one? Thanks.

I removed a mast flotation pad from a '85 boat I bought several years ago. It's about 84" long and was attached to the forward edge of the mast, running from just above the forestay attachment point to close to the tip of the mast. It's a black, canvas "sleeve" containing some type of floatation insert. It wraps around the forward edge of the mast. It has a "slot" in it that makes me think it could mount lower, with the forestay passing through slot. If anyone wants it, let me know. It screws on, and I think I have all the screws to send.

I have a hobie bob that i was going to put on ebay but never got around to it . The mounting shaft is broken but should be easy to replicate. I havent checked to see what it would cost to ship. Seems it should worth $100 ? or possibly trade some parts ?

The pad concept, while it may work to displace water, has to allow the boat to be well upside down to be effective flotation. The pad needs to be in the water... Since it is spread down the mast to nearly the tang, the boat is starting to go turtle once the tang is under, so you are more likely to go turtle even with the pad. The pad also causes wind drag on the mast and disturbs air flow over the sail, so slows the boat.

A mast head float places the flotation at the top, the best lever to keep the boat on its side rather than allowing it to turtle. Does not disturb the sails air flow and has less wind drag than a human head.